A Music-related blog containing information and commentary of my favorite music, as well as some choice downloads of quality, hard-to-find music (unofficial releases, ROIO's, concert bootlegs, etc.) available on the web.

What a year it has been. A year with much upheaval, and, once again, the loss of so many iconic rockers. Just since October and the incomprehensibly tragic and unexpected death of Tom Petty, when I started this tribute to him and his fantastic contribution to rock music, there have been several more deaths of outstanding rock musicians. From Fats Domino, to more recently and unexpectedly, power pop sensation Tommy Keene, and Smithereens singer-songwriter and frontman, Pat DiNizio, all major losses to the music world. But, as always, their music will be remembered and live on, and for the rest of us, time keeps moving, and we must keep moving on too, to the new year.

Continuing the tradition of featuring classic New Year's Eve shows for New Year's Eve, and this year also continuing with our Tom Petty tribute, here is the only Petty NYE show recording I know of, and it is a great one. This one goes back to 1978, and, in addition to it being a NYE show, it has some unique features that make it extra special. Remember, this came at a time when Petty was still working on the album that would be his real breakthrough, Damn the Torpedoes, but also would be much delayed in its release due to Petty's issues and legal problems with his record company (resulting in lawsuits, Petty's bankruptcy, and refusal to back down - see previous story related to this time). This show features previews of 2 new songs that would be on the new album (which would not be released until late 1979), 'Casa Dega' and 'Refugee', and of special note is that this is one of the only times 'Casa Dega' was ever played live at a Petty show (it was not included in the setlists of any shows post-album release). Another rarely played song featured at this show was 'Mystery Man' from their first album. So, here is a great NYE show featuring some rarely played gems in addition to the usual high-quality Petty songs and jams from this time. Since this show was relatively short (about an hour), I've added a couple more songs from the 1977-11-11 Capitol Studios show (in superb quality - 4 songs from this show were previously featured with the 1977 Record Plant post).
Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year, and a hope that 2018 is better than 2017.

Continuing with Tom Petty's Musical History. By 2001, Tom had recovered from his heroin addiction and had just married Dana York, whose relationship had re-charged his life. And by the end of 2001, The band learned they would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But the latter months of 2001 also were filled with tragedy, from the 9/11 terror attack to the death of Tom's friend, George Harrison. And although Petty was now clean and drug-free, bassist Howie Epstein was mired ever more deeply in drug addiction and was no longer able to function in the band. Petty and the rest of the band tried everything they could to get help for Epstein and get him through this, but Howie just kept going back to drugs. Finally, the band had to just move on without him. On their next album, Petty and Mike Campbell played bass on most of the songs, and then they brought back original bassist Ron Blair to play on a couple tracks, and then to join them on their 2002 tour, and eventually, full-time back as a Heartbreaker. Tragically, Howie Epstein would later die of a heroin overdose in 2003. For that next album, which became The Last DJ (2002), Tom still had some things gnawing at him that he wanted to get off his chest, and several songs on The Last DJ were sharp attacks on the Music Industry, their greed and unfair practices. Because of this, the album was unsurprisingly not well-received by the industry, and it became one of the band's least heard and poorest-selling albums. But, also not surprisingly and as usual, the album actually contains many very good songs. Here is a show from their 2002 tour, an audience recording, but with excellent sound quality. This show was actually from earlier in the year, before The Last DJ was released, so there were only 3 songs from the new album featured ('Have Love Will Travel', 'Lost Children', and 'Can't Stop the Sun'). Later in the tour, around the time of the album release, many more songs from the album were played, so I have included 4 additional songs from The Last DJ that were played at the November Las Vegas show. Check out another great show as well as the new Last DJ songs (Note: There actually was one more Last DJ song played at the Vegas show, 'Good Kid Gone Bad' -for a total of 8 new songs from the album in that show!, but the recording for that one was messed up, so I did not include it here.

Continuing with the musical history of Tom Petty: Following the 1995 tour, Petty's next album (which was with The Heartbreakers) was Songs and Music from the Motion Picture "She's Te One" (1996). But this was more than just a 'soundtrack' album, as it was a full album of new music from Tom & The Boys, much of which was featured in the Edwards Burns film, She's The One. The album consisted of a mix of new songs and some that were holdovers from the Wildflowers sessions, as well as a couple intriguing covers, and was consistent with the styles explored in Wildflowers. The album's best-known songs was 'Walls' (which is one of my all-time favorite Petty songs). There was no tour in support of the album and it did not have the same degree of success as most previous albums (only reaching Gold status, instead of Platinum or beyond). Petty's next album was Echo in 1999, and is probably his most underrated album. Even Petty himself has indicated he was not happy with this album. However, his feelings about the album are probably more closely related to what he was going through at the time, rather than the musical content of the album, which is excellent. These years (mid-late '90's) were a dark period for Petty, as he was going through rough times, with the pressures and self-examination of a failing marriage, then difficult divorce, and the unsettled aftermath. After his divorce, he lived alone and somewhat isolated from others. In addition, as we have only recently learned (through the Petty biography by Warren Zanes - 2015), during this period he was also struggling with heroin addiction. The songs on Echo are some of his darkest, but also very personal and revealing, and overall a musically excellent album. However, once the album was behind him, he didn't want to look back on it at all, it was too painful to relive. He never listened to it, and after the 1999 tour never played songs from it on subsequent tours (although interestingly, he did include 'Swingin' on some dates on his final tour (2017)). Fortunately, Petty eventually recovered from his funk, and kicked his drug habit, as greatly helped (and probably made possible) by his developing relationship with Dana York, who nursed him through the drug recovery period. It was also Dana (who he married in 2001) who, many years later, urged him to re-listen to and re-discover Echo, and he found that, yes, it really was a good album after all. Here is a great recording of a great show from the 1999 tour (This show was broadcast on European TV - Rockpalast, from Germany, and full video from the show is available). These 1999 shows are really the only place to hear live versions of the songs from this period. This show features 2 songs from She's the One, 'Walls' and 'Angel Dream' (and by the way, this acoustic version of 'Walls', played only on this tour, is without doubt the best version of this song available, so evocative and beautiful), and 4 from Echo, 'Swingin', 'Room at the Top', 'Free Girl Now', and 'I Don't Wanna Fight', which is one of the only songs Mike Campbell ever sang lead on. This show also features numerous covers, ranging from old-school Rock and Blues ('Round & Round', 'Lucille', 'Call Me The Breeze', 'Guitar Boogie Shuffle') to bluegrass ('Little Maggie') to 60's rock classics ('Pipeline', 'Green Onions', 'Gloria', 'For What It's Worth'), and Petty also features each member of the band to a greater degree than usual (even Scott Thurston gets his own song to sing). A great show, you would never know that Petty was having any problems based on these performances. Also, if you are a Petty fan, but haven't checked out Echo previously (for whatever reason), by all means do so, it is definitely worth it, and an important part of the Petty legacy.

As promised, here is the Updated-Upgraded version of this show. I previously posted this show several years back (in 2012). It was the complete show, but it was only available as Mp3 and at 256 kbps. So, as part of this look back at Tom Petty's magnificent career, here is a new version of this show, now available in both Lossless (FLAC) and improved Mp3 (at 320 kbps). This is an excellent quality FM broadcast recording of the full concert (many of the available recordings are only partial, as it was usually broadcast that way (such as Westwood One shows), especially in subsequent broadcasts), however, it is not from the same source recording as the previously posted version (as I could not find that exact recording available in Lossless), so I am keeping that other version available for those interested in that recording (both are excellent). This one did have a couple issues that I had to sort out before posting, as detailed below. But overall, great show, great recording, and now available in FLAC as well as Mp3. Enjoy!
Note: This may be one of the last shows where Stan Lynch played drums for the band, as he left around this time. Also, this was when multi-instrumentalist Scott Thurston first started joining The Heartbreakers on tour to fill out their live sound: not yet officially a Heartbreaker, but would become a consistent presence on stage and eventually in the studio with the band.

Tracklist:01. Love Is A Long Road 02. Into The Great Wide Open 03. Listen To Her Heart 04. I Won't Back Down 05. Free Fallin' 06. Psychotic Reaction 07. Ben's Boogie 08. Don't Come Around Here No More 09. Something in the Air10. Mary Jane's Last Dance 11. King's Highway 12. A Face In The Crowd 13. Ballad Of Easy Rider 14. Take Out Some Insurance 15. Thirteen Days 16. Southern Accents 17. Yer So Bad 18. Driving Down To Georgia19. Lost Without You (mp3 only)20. Refugee 21. Running Down A Dream 22. Learning To Fly 23. Rainy Day Women 24. American Girl 25. Alright For Now

Notes on recording issues: First, it had a tape-flip gap of about 21 seconds in 'Free Fallin',
that I could not let stand. So, I spliced in the missing section from
the readily available Pre-FM Westwood One recording (see if you can hear it). Also, this
version of the show left out 2 songs, 'Something in The Air' and 'Lost
Without You' because versions of them had been released in other live
recordings. I have restored 'Something In The Air', again from the
Westwood One recording, but didn't have a FLAC version of 'Lost Without
You', so that is only available as mp3 (from the previous recorded
version).

Sorry for the gap in posts, just been very busy and traveling extensively all through November, but I'm back now, and ready to continue this chronological tribute to Tom Petty's live shows.

When we last left Tom and the band, they were finishing up their hugely successful Full Moon Fever tour in 1989. Following that tour, Tom continued to work with Jeff Lynne as a producer, both for the second Traveling Wilbury's album (Vol. 3, released in 1990), as well as on Tom's return to The Heartbreakers, the 1991 album, Into The Great Wide Open, which nonetheless continued right where Full Moon Fever left off. At this time, Tom's contract with MCA was winding down, and Tom had actually already secretly signed a new lucrative contract with Warners Bros. For their last action with MCA, Tom & The Heartbreakers recorded a couple new tracks to be included in a greatest hits package, as part of MCA's contract. This was also the last session for drummer Stan Lynch with the band, as he left soon after, not happy with his status in the band and Tom's forays and success outside of the Heartbreakers. The single album greatest hits collection was released in 1993. The new songs were 'Mary Jane's Last Dance', and a cover of Thunderclap Newman's 'Something in the Air', of which 'Mary Jane...' became a major hit, and the album went on to sell over 12 million copies in the US alone. I have previously posted Tom's triumphant concert return to his hometown, Gainesville, FL, that year (1993-11-04 show), and I will update that show to include a FLAC version ASAP.
Tom's first new album on his new label was another 'solo' album, his second, Wildflowers (1994), and was another masterpiece (and critical and commercial success), once again expanding his overall sound and style beyond what The Heartbreakers were known for (but as with the previous solo album, all The Heartbreakers contributed, and, in fact played on most of the songs). It included the hit singles 'You Don't Know How It Feels', 'You Wreck Me', 'It's Good To Be King', and 'A Higher Place', and went multi-platinum. So, when Tom & The Heartbreakers went out on tour in 1995, in what was dubbed the 'Dogs With Wings' Tour, the setlist incorporated numerous tracks from the new 'solo' album. Drummer Steve Ferrone was brought in to play on the Wildflowers album, and subsequently also played with the Heartbreakers and on tour, but was not officially named as a member of The Heartbreakers until a few years later. Here is an excellent recording of a great show from the 1995 tour. Although much of the setlist is similar to that played in the 1993 Gainesville show, these shows now featured 5 new songs from the excellent Wildflowers, as well as a fun cover of the The Ventures' surf-guitar instrumental 'Diamond Head' (where Mike Campbell gets a chance to really stretch out), and an original song that was only played live, but never recorded, 'Drivin' Down to Georgia', as additional treats. Listen as Petty soars into the '90's'.

Tracklist:
1. Love Is A Long Road
2. You Don't Know How It Feels
3. Listen To Her Heart
4. I Won't Back Down
5. Free Fallin'
6. You Wreck Me
7. Diamond Head
8. Mary Jane's Last Dance
9. Don't Come Around Here No More
10. A Higher Place
11. Learning To Fly
12. The Waiting
13. Yer So Bad
14. It's Good To Be King
15. Drivin' Down To Georgia
16. Refugee
17. Runnin' Down A Dream
18. Honey Bee
19. American Girl
20. Alright For Now

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